Been working temp to perm through an agency for a pallet company who have just opened up a new depot local to me for the last month or so, driving the 6 leg 26 tonner. Been getting on great and it has been noted and commented on by the Transport Manager.
Anyhoo, we were chatting week before last and he was saying “you’re driving our biggest wagon and not once complained about any of the places you’ve had to get into, had whinges from the 10 ton and 16 ton drivers but you just get it done” I replied to him “thats because I used to drive buses down most of those roads and this wagon’s shorter and lower and I’ve got my class 1 as well” Turns out the agency hadnt said I had class 1 and he didn’t know about it. He said it was useful to know and he would try and get me some artic experience down the line, covering when our trunk driver was off.
Got a text last bank holiday Monday evening saying would I mind if he put me out on the artic from Tuesday? Mind■■? hell no! So I did Tuesday and Wednesday on the full length trailer and Thurs/Fri with the little Urban trailer with a tail lift.
Bit easier physically than the 26t, even though I have a tail lift on the urban, it very rarely gets used. Doing mostly 3-9 pallet drops in industrial estates and rdc’s with forklifts. Made a bit of a knob of myself in a few places, having to take more than a few shunts. Still, not hit anything and got on all the bays, eventually A lot of the places I’m going are regular drops so learnt a lot from watching other drivers when I’m sitting being tipped and working out what the best lines are to get set up right. Getting plenty of coupling practice too, night trunk comes in and leaves unit hooked up in case we need to move it so I unhook the decker and hook up my urban, then reverse the process in the evening.
One thing I really did notice was how responsive the little urban trailer is, seems it only needs half a turn on the wheel to get it in an L shape and something that you dont do on test or get any experience in is having to screw it round, its surprising how small a space you need to spin it round
Learning something new every day, pretty much every hour and enjoying every minute of it
Well done mate. I’m a big believer is marketing myself at any and every opportunity in conversations with people. Place I’m at currently I’m working as mainly a forkie/ machine operative via agency and the agency didn’t tell them I got a hgv licence, mentioned it in a convo with one of the managers and have spent quite a bit of time driving all sorts of vehicles since.
Cheers guys, had a good day today. A few new places, a few places I’ve done in the rigid (funny how different it is when you take a bendy into somewhere you are used to with a rigid) and even did a couple of residential drops as I was passing. Didnt get myself in a tangle and actually got back to the yard feeling quite relaxed.
I had done a few days for other pallet firms before I got this gig, one thing that makes a massive difference is all our vehicles have electric pallet trucks on them. Not only does it save your back, but we can get stuff put in places others cant. I’ve had quite a few where I get to the end of a residential street, take one look down it and think not a chance of getting up there. Other companies would have to come back with a smaller vehicle but we can just drive it up on the pallet truck, even if it is a couple of hundred yards uphill. It will even drive over hard packed gravel drives when a normal pallet truck is thwarted by a zippy tie on the floor
A lot of the places I’m going are regular drops so learnt a lot from watching other drivers when I’m sitting being tipped and working out what the best lines are to get set up right. Getting plenty of coupling practice too, night trunk comes in and leaves unit hooked up in case we need to move it so I unhook the decker and hook up my urban, then reverse the process in the evening.
